An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it...........
Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position...........
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi

CSFH statement on Sonal Shah

Friday, November 14, 2008: A virtual melee has ensued in print and digital media over the selection of Ms. Sonal Shah, an American of Indian origin to the Obama
transition team's advisory board. Shrill accusations of Ms. Shah being
a "racist and Hindu chauvinist" are being reciprocated by equally
shrill attempts to portray anyone who raises serious questions about
the selection as being anti-India, anti-Hindu, anti-progress, and
recently, as against "liberal civility." We condemn such baseless and
unfair statements.

At the outset we wish to acknowledge that Ms. Shah has had a record of
being a visible and an important face of the "desi American" community- a successful professional, and a politically and socially engaged citizen.

We are also happy to note at least one positive effect from this debate. Even as this issue gets played out on public fora, the din of militant Hindutva drumbeats has suffered some dampening. Almost all participants, including those who have come out in support of Ms. Shah, have said that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- both integral to the Hindutva movement, are part of the "politics of hate" that must be resisted. We wish such statements had come much earlier, such as the time when people were being butchered in Gujarat, or when Indicorps (an organization Ms. Shah co-founded) was felicitated by Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Ms. Shah has become something of a point of pride for many Americans with origins in India. But Ms. Shah does have feet that leave tracks, has written words that have been archived, and has occupied offices of responsibility. We wish to explore this material record below by examining two of the most persuasive claims made by supporters of Ms. Shah. These are:

That accusations of Ms. Shah being a closet Hindutva ideologue amount to "guilt by association", a reference to the fact that her father Mr. Ramesh Shah has well documented leadership roles within the Sangh Parivar (Collective Family, the name for the set of organizations of Hindutva).

That Ms. Shah's only association with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) was in the context of the Gujarat earthquake; surely, she cannot be faulted for not picking the right organization when urgent action was the need of the hour.

Our claims of Ms. Shah's Hindutva associations are not based on guilt by association. Instead, we ask: What organizational and ideological work did Ms. Shah perform for and as part of the VHPA?

We have archived records demonstrating that Ms. Shah was a part of VHPA's leadership group--the governing council and chapter presidents/coordinators. She participated in strategy discussions with prominent leaders of the Sangh Parivar. Ms. Shah was not just a bystander, she was considered important and trustworthy enough by the Hindutva leadership to be included in a core group with Ajay Shah, Gaurang Vaishnav, Mahesh Mehta, Yashpal Lakra, Vijay Pallod, Shyam Tiwari, and others. Does Ms. Shah deny that she played such a role? Even in light of the recent public statement by Gaurang Vaishnav, General Secretary of the VHPA, that Ms. Shah was made a member of the governing council as she came out of college?

We are glad to hear Ms. Shah assert that her "personal politics have nothing in common with the views espoused by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or any such organization", and that she does not "subscribe to the views of such Hindu nationalist groups". However, in view of her close association with VHPA, as summarized above, Ms. Shah's claim to have "never" subscribed to such Hindu nationalist views strains credulity.

Ms. Shah's participation in the VHPA Governing Council predates by a few years her position as National Coordinator of VHPA's Gujarat earthquake activities in 2001. The position of earthquake relief coordinator doesn't seem to be an easy one to ascend to -- VHPA's website states that "national projects are executed by a committee of members drawn from the Governing Council and the various chapters." Thus, Ms. Shah's coordination of VHPA earthquake relief seems to have built upon her earlier leadership role within the VHPA. We do not know when/if her affiliation with the VHPA ceased, but VHPA media secretary Shyam Tiwari has recently claimed: "Sonal was a member of VHP of America at the time of the earthquake. Her membership has [now] expired."

A note about Ms. Shah's earthquake relief work. Calamities such as the 2001 Bhuj earthquake often bring out the best in humans, but the Sangh Parivar is notorious for using such moments instrumentally and cynically for advancing its violent ideological agenda. An ordinary donor or fund-raiser can be excused for not knowing the Sangh agenda, but for someone like Ms. Shah, who grew up in a family deeply rooted in the Sangh Parivar, it is more than a little disingenuous to claim that such fund-raising was apolitical or neutral. There are numerous documented instances of the Sangh Parivar's religion- and caste-based discrimination in doling out relief. Therefore we are shocked that Ms. Shah has expressed pride in coordinating relief work (under the ambit of VHPA) following the Gujarat earthquake of 2001. The relief work coordinated by the VHP is known to have rebuilt villages in the Kutch region exclusively for caste Hindus while marginalizing lower caste Hindus and Muslims to the periphery. The VHP thus took the opportunity of the earthquake to re-create multi-ethnic villages into exclusive Hindu spaces. In addition, given the pivotal role played by the VHP and other Sangh organizations in the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom, we fear her pride is entirely misplaced.

Although we appreciate the positive influence Ms. Shah has had on many second-generation desis, we have a hard time forgetting the many victims of Hindutva. If Ms. Shah really wants to dispel doubts about her linkages with the VHPA and other Sangh Parivar outfits, we urge her to be more forthcoming in her condemnations of the Sangh Parivar, especially its branches in the United States since that has been the site of her involvement. Some ways for Ms. Shah to do this would be to:

acknowledge her past organizational associations with the Sangh Parivar

distance herself from the public reception reportedly planned by the RSS in her native village in Gujarat

categorically condemn the role played by Hindutva forces in anti-minority violence in India, and the facilitation of this violence by funds sent through various Sangh Parivar affiliates in the United States

In Peace and Justice
Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (www.stopfundinghate.org)

Uncovering the Global Sangh

New Delhi, Thursday, Jan 17, 2008: The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) released its latest report “UNMISTAKABLY SANGH: THE NATIONAL HSC AND ITS HINDUTVA AGENDA” on the growth of the Sangh Parivar’s student wing in the USA – the Hindu Students Council (HSC). The press conference and report release was held at the Press Club, New Delhi. The report documents a long and dense trail of connections between the HSC and the Sangh from 1990 to the present. Ironically, the HSC exists on US American university campuses because of the liberal policy of multiculturalism that allows for diversity of cultures and tolerance. Yet HSC has promoted divisive and sectarian speakers such as Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Rithambara. Indian American youth many times join the HSC without an awareness of the “invisible” connections between HSC and the Sangh.

The HSC was founded in 1990 as a project of the VHP of America. In 1993, Ashok Singhal, then General Secretary of the VHP, declared, "Now, the first project we have in mind is strengthening the Hindu Student Council".1 The report Unmistakably Sangh, provides the first comprehensive documentation of the origins, methods and practices of the HSC and directly counters the claims of the HSC that it "has been independently run since 1993".2 The report uses documents from Sangh sources – VHPA tax returns, filings with US Patents Office, Internet domain registry information, archives of the HSC, and publications of the Sangh Parivar in North America and elsewhere, to establish that the HSC was and remains an arm of the global Sangh Parivar.

Between 2002 and 2004, two reports, “The Foreign Exchange of Hate", and “In Bad faith” exposed the siphoning of funds by the Sangh in the US and UK respectively. This new report establishes that the Sangh’s interests and activities in the US go far beyond funding, and that the HSC represents a grooming space for young Sangh leadership and the entry of the Sangh ideology into second generation Indian American spaces. “The Hindu Students Council claims to be an independent organization with no links to any Hindutva organization or movement. This is patently misleading, as most of those who join HSC do not know they are joining the Sangh,” says Ashwini Rao, a campaign coordinator for CSFH. Several of the HSC’s early recruits on American campuses are leaders in the Global Sangh operations today. “How important the HSC is to the Sangh can be seen from the fact that the HSC built and operated a significant part of the Sangh’s electronic infrastructure out of a server cluster in California” Raja Swamy, another CSFH coordinator pointed out. This runs counter to the policy of multiculturalism that allows organizations such as HSC on American campuses.

The latest report is part of CSFH’s Truth Out on HSC’s 3 Campaign aimed at educating Indian-Americans on the Sangh Parivar and its operations in the US. For more information on the press conference or the report please write to: hsctruthout@gmail.com.